Chapter 204: Taking Them All On

Julius wanted to groan in frustration.

“I thought you said the children here were good kids,” he said accusingly toward Elder Han.

“There are, but as I said, some of them have gotten arrogant,” the meddlesome old man stated with zero shame. As if one of them hadn’t just tried to smash his head apart after the spar was clearly over.

Julius stalked on over to the prone figure of the boy who had tried to hurt him. He didn’t help the boy up, no, he gave the boy another small kick for good measure.

“Hey! That’s cheap!” One of the other boys called out angrily.

“Cheap? You mean more cheap than swinging as hard as he could at a defenseless person’s head?” Julius retorted back without looking.

“Well, obviously you’re fine!”

“So that makes it okay, huh? What if I hadn’t been prepared? What if he actually managed to hit me?” Julius asked the boy.

Truthfully, if Julius had managed to get hit by that strike, it would have done pretty minimal damage since his physical enhancement skill had been still active. Additionally, he would have just healed whatever damage with his healing skill. So there wouldn’t have been a problem.

However, he wasn’t going to tell them that. In the end, one of their friends had just tried to ambush him after losing the fight.

It was a show of poor sportsmanship and a reflection of how he fought. That thoughtlessness was the reason why the poor boy had been beaten so easily.

It wasn’t like the boy had shitty skills. As a matter of fact, Julius was pretty sure that he had several at rare already. A pretty good feat for someone living at an orphanage. Likely better than some of the students in his class.

Although, he suspected that had a lot to do with the old man. But he doubted many of them realized that.

After Julius’s retort, the boy went beat red and had his fists clenched.

“Calm down, Ibram,” another girl told her friend with a hand on Ibram’s shoulder.

“Calm down, Sarah? You saw what he just did to Scott.”

Scott? Oh, that must be the boy in the dirt, he thought to himself.

“Scott deserved it and you know it.”

Just as the other Ibram boy was about to say something, Elder Han clapped his hands together with a deafening boom. The sound was much louder than what an old man should be able to produce.

“This is why I asked Julius to help you guys,” Elder Han spoke. The usual teasing tone was nowhere to be seen. His voice was authoritative and stern, and Julius saw that every one of the children stood up a bit straighter.

“After your guy’s success hunting some monsters, you have grown too arrogant. I thought it was needed to show you guys that there are people out there that you are no match for yet.”

“And you’re saying that this guy is? I admit he beat Scott, but that doesn’t mean he could beat the rest of us. If Scott fought a little smarter, he would have likely beaten him,” Ibram confidently stated.

“No, he wouldn’t.”

The assertiveness and absoluteness of Elder Han’s words cut through all of them.

“Even if every one of you guys fought him, you would die before you could scratch his skin,” Elder Han told them bluntly.

“That’s a bit unfair Elder,” the girl named Sarah defended herself and her friends.

“Why is that? Do you think that just because you guys can take down a Tier 2 monster by yourself you can win against any Tier 2?” The old man’s rebuttal was sharp like a whip, his sarcasm evident.

“No, that would be unreasonable, but to assume that we would all be defeated so easily against another kid our age seems unfair to our hard work,” the girl calmly argued.

She has a point. I don’t blame her for being offended. If someone told me that no matter what I or my group of friends did, we wouldn’t be able to beat another person of the same tier, I would be similarly offended.

“That’s just the harsh truth of the world. And I want to show you this before you all head off onto your own journeys. There are just some things that you can’t fight your way out of. I would rather you find out now, than die in a few years because of that pride,” Elder Han said more gently.

“Look, we get that we won’t be able to beat some of the geniuses of the sects or academies who have perfect affinities, but you can’t expect us to constantly live in fear of fighting someone who has perfect affinity,” a different boy spoke up.

“It’s not the people with perfect affinities, that I want you to worry about, Finn. It’s the people who get as strong as them who don’t have such advantages that you should be wary of. You will be surprised at how many people with subpar affinities go on to become powerhouses.”

“What like him?” Ibram asked skeptically, pointing at him.

Hey, stop bringing me into this. I just got caught up with the old man, I didn’t mean for this to become such a thing.

“Exactly like him.”

Shut up, old fart.

“Well, I still don’t believe you. To say that all of us together wouldn’t stand a chance against him is too much,” the boy adamantly stated.

“Why don’t you try?” Elder Han welcomed daringly.

Julius gave a harsh look toward the old man. “I have no intentions of dealing with this drama. If you are so worried about the children, then you should find a way to deal with them yourself. I’m certainly, not going to fight them all for you.”

“Oi, sounds like you are scared,” the boy kept on talking.

“Shut up kid, the adults are speaking,” Julius casually dismissed the boy who was probably older than him. But he was getting annoyed at the kid’s attitude.

He heard an angry response, but he tuned it out. All of his attention was on the old man.

Elder Han gave him an acknowledging nod. “I understand your hesitancy, Julius. However, what if I gave you something in return.”

“What could you give me?” Julius asked, not outwardly showing his interest.

“What if I could help you evolve your physical enhancement skill?” Elder Han threw out.

Julius paused at that. “What would you know about that?”

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“I might have a useful Concept that will go along quite nicely with that skill.”

That did intrigue Julius. The only problem with that was that he didn’t think he would or should get another Concept or epic skill before getting to Tier 3. He had learned his lesson and understood that his soul could only handle so much.

“Under normal circumstances, that would be a good offer, but I would have to wait until Tier 3,” he honestly told him.

“Oh?” Elder Han’s grey and bushy eyebrows lifted in excitement. “So you’re at that point huh?”

“What point?” The girl named Sarah asked. “And what did you mean by teaching him a concept?”

They both ignored the girl, much to her annoyance.

Elder Han nodded. “Okay, then how about a favor? If there’s something you need and if it’s within my abilities, then I will provide it. Does that sound fair?”

Julius smiled inwardly. He liked favors. Elder Han didn’t know that of course, but the thought of gaining another favor greatly appealed to Julius. Especially, from someone as enigmatic as this old man. It was his secret weakness, after secret treasure chests of course.

“That could work,” he said approvingly.

“Wonderful!” Elder Han clapped his hands happily. “Everyone, you all sound very confident in your ability to beat this boy. Now you can prove it.”

Julius gave a look at who he would be facing. There was the boy Ibram, Sarah, another girl, Finn, and the last boy. The Scott fellow was still lying unconscious so Julius wasn’t counting him.